Forever England under a southern sky

The English In Australia, By James Jupp. Cambridge University Press, $37.95

When visiting England in 1997, I, foolishly, as it turned out, told a literary type that I edited Overland, an Australian literary magazine. His predictable reply was along the lines of "Oh, do they have those over there?" Rather than get bolshie, I replied flatly: "Well yes, we have quite a few." He was behaving according to the stereotype of the politely arrogant Pom who is instantly forgivable because he is such a fop.

As James Jupp reveals in The English In Australia, there is much more to the English than that (though we all knew all along, anyway). Indeed, the English are one of the more diverse "ethnic" groupings in terms of both historical origins and contemporary make-up. Yet that stereotype, along with some others, haunts the English around the world.

As a member of a 1969 "ten-pound tourist" family, I opened this book with a sense of expectation that the Australian chapter of the English diaspora would be revealed to me in all its diversity, splendour and impact; that I would be able to place myself in a vast historical migration.

For such a small book (just over 200 pages), The English In Australia has a panoramic sweep. Jupp outlines the immediate English prehistory to Australian settlement to draw a sense of the diversity from which many of the first white Australians migrated. The changing social and political character of England is invoked to argue that each wave of migration adds a new facet to the character of the Australian population.

Jupp is also sensitive to the settlement patterns and the way in which different waves come from different regions and migrate to different parts of Australia. As a result, English heritage means different things, depending upon which region of Australia you are in. This diversity is a central theme of the book.

Yet the book concludes with a sense of flatness - not necessarily the author's fault - because The English In Australia have been about as exciting as the food they imposed upon us. There are few monuments and structures left to honour the English (as opposed to the British). There have been few, if any, great Englanders as Englanders in Australian history. There are plenty of famous Irish-Australians or Greek-Australians, but who are the prominent English-Australians?

The impact of the English has been as part of ideologies, movements and organisations in which their ethnicity is either secondary or deemed irrelevant: the cultural and political machinery of British imperialism, the unions, cricket.

One of the book's crucial observations is that the English never organised as ethnic English in Australia the way virtually every other migrant group has: from Scottish music and dancing societies to Irish cultural clubs to Greek and Croatian soccer teams. There might be the odd British working men's club but there seems to be little else to remark upon.

This is not to suggest that the English have a hard time of it in Australia or don't make an impact. Jupp points to some significant figures from Henry Parkes to William Lane to Alan Bond to show that many English have been successful.

There's an extent to which they have been too successful. In the first instance, the cultural and linguistic capacity to integrate obviates the need to set up ethnic English structures and organisations. Moreover, some of the English come with an "unquestioning self-confidence" - a belief in some natural right to be here by virtue of Australia's English imperial past. A ruling assumption for many English immigrants might well be that to organise along ethnic lines would be to revoke their imperial right - whereas Australian racism and bigotry drives most other ethnic groups to set up support structures. As Jupp points out: "There is little evidence that (the English) consider themselves an alien ethnic group, whatever Australians may think of them."

This may be changing. In recent years there has been a small upsurge in Englishness in Australia. The English theme pub, the Barmy Army, the English who voted for the monarchy in the referendum on the republic (Jupp examines the voting patterns in "English" electorates), the English backpacker phenomenon, the widespread availability of English bottled and draught beer are all examples of what might be taken overall as a trend.

This relates to Jupp's point that each wave of migration "was more English - and less British - than its predecessor". We have fewer English born in Australia (in percentage terms) but they are increasingly more conscious of being English. The spectre of an English nationalist mythology ascending in Australia while the English-born are dying out is too depressing for words. We have enough second-hand passions as it is.

I finished the book having learnt a great deal about the facts of English migration to Australia. But I am still waiting to find out how the migrants themselves felt about why they were leaving England, what they were embarking upon and what they felt about the country they had come to. I don't get that desired sense of understanding my place in the migration scheme of things.

So in the end, this book is a terrific survey bolstered by compelling historical and political arguments waiting for the subjective voices of the people it writes about. I hope Jupp takes the next step in a subsequent history.

Ian Syson is publisher at Vulgar Press and teaches literature and professional writing at Victoria University.